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With the ongoing economic slowdown in the US, the Ministry of Tourism continues to collaborate with the AHTA and other travel partners to ensure that Antigua and Barbuda remains a "top-of-mind" destination among top travel agents who sell the Caribbean.

In what has been described as 'Continuous Familiarization Trips" the US Team has coordinated nine continuous weeks of these trips. Each week some 10 -12 top producers from the United States will visit the destination to conduct site inspections at various properties, enjoy adventure tours and exotic cuisine and shopping in downtown St. Johns.'

The initiative will originate from various gateways throughout the United States including Miami, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Connecticut, Boston and Chicago and will bring close to 100 agents to the destination by the end of June.

According to Tourism Officer, Dean Fenton who is spearheading this initiative, "These trips are critical in ensuring that agents get an opportunity to receive a first-hand experience of the destination, tour some of the properties, enjoy some of our adventure tours and restaurants and ultimately, increase their product knowledge and likelihood to sell the destination."

Upon their arrival to the destination, the travel agents receive VIP welcome by local Tourism officials and they spend four nights at various properties who have agreed to host the agents. These include Jolly Beach Resort and Spa, The Verandah, St. James' Club, Hawksbill, Blue Waters Hotel, The Inn, Sandals Grande Resort and Spa and the Lighthouse Bay in Barbuda.

Derede Samuel-Whitlock, Director of Tourism in the US, looks forward to welcoming these groups of travel agents and commented, "In the past year, we have increased our room capacity by more than 10 percent, and we are also increasing our seat capacity by a similar scale which means that we have to increase our marketing efforts. This gives us the opportunity to showcase some of the upgrades and new amenities that have been added to some of our major properties. We are very excited to use this opportunity to support and promote all of our industry partners in these tough economic times."